VCSD looks for answers for state-test rebels

Enterprise file photo — Michael Koff

Graduation is a goal for Voorheesville students and parents alike but the path to commencement has gotten thornier with the recent introduction of Common Core standards.

VOORHEESVILLE — Parents and teachers spoke out against mandated state testing and its link to teacher performance at the school board meeting here Monday.

The board, however, passed over its own discussion item and a chance to parse Governor Andrew Cuomo’s 2015 Opportunity Agenda.

“I’m disappointed in the board,” Voorheesville Teachers Association President Kathy Fiero told The Enterprise. “They have a responsibility to know what’s going on. I’ve brought this up on a weekly basis for two months,” she said.  

The board meeting ended with a suggestion by school board President Timothy Blow that the district could host a forum about the testing, which was met with interest by Fiero and the audience.

“I think that would be great,” Fiero said,

Blow said Tuesday, however, that there may not be value in a forum and he wants to “reach out” to teachers for more information, instead.

Fiero called Cuomo’s pledge to overhaul education in New York, including a plan to link student test scores to teachers’ job rating and also to make tenure harder to get, the biggest obstacle she has faced in her career.

While she appreciated the concept of a public discussion in Voorheesville, she noted Monday that a forum at this point in the school year might be too late for many people to make decisions about going ahead with testing or opposing linking teacher performance to test scores.

Differing opinions

“I’m not going to make a motion to withdraw from ELA [English language arts] testing,” Blow said at the board meeting.

He later told The Enterprise that information discussed at the meeting “may not be factually correct.” He said he had learned that the district does get about 50 percent of the questions from ELA tests returned to it.

A spokeswoman for the State Education Department, Jeanne Beattie, referred to a press release from August 2014 that said that approximately 50 percent of the questions used on the 2014 grades 3 through 8 assessments were available online.

“The released questions will help students, families, educators, and the public understand the breadth and depth with which the state tests measure college and career readiness...[and] represent a range of difficulty and illustrate how student performance is assessed in accordance with the learning expectations and instructional shifts established by the New York State Common Core Learning Standards,” the statement said. 

About concerns mentioned at the Voorheesville board meeting by parents and teachers, Blow said, “They are two separate issues, in my viewpoint. Other people may not share that viewpoint.” The two issues are to consider both the appropriateness of standardized testing, and whether or how tenure or employment should be linked to teacher evaluations based on testing, he said.

“I think everyone should be taking the test,” he said. “Standardized tests have been with us for decades. I want to take a deep breath and separate things where they need to be separated.”

Parent Kerry Connolly told the board about regional forums to discuss how state testing is or is not used, and that she has a background in education.

“Our children will not be taking the New York State English language arts or math tests this spring,” Connolly said in a statement she read to the board. (See “Letters to the Editor.”) “We are refusing the tests on behalf of our children.

“What’s the point of tests that don’t inform instruction?” she continued. Connolly said that the tests are poorly written, and that teachers are not given information about the test before it is given or afterward so that teachers know what areas need improvement.

According to the news release by the State Education Department, “The 3-8 assessments are only one indicator among multiple measures of student performance and are intended to be used in conjunction with other tools to gauge student performance, educator effectiveness, and school accountability. All Regional Information Centers (RICs) offer reports that allow educators to see the percentage of students that answered each test question correctly and (for released test questions) the percentage of students who selected each incorrect response.”

The State Education Department did not respond when asked if individual students' exams or teachers' results were returned for personal analysis.

“We can’t suggest improvements, because we can’t talk about the tests,” said district Superintendent Teresa Thayer Snyder.

Beattie said that the idea of a gag order on administrators mixes up two ideas.

“They can't discuss tests after they're given,” Beattie said, but she said that some test results were available online, with explanations for the released questions of why questions would be considered correct or incorrect.

“Released questions can help inform classroom instruction and local assessment practices,” according to the State Education Department news statement.

Released questions can be seen at engageny.org/resource/new-york-state-common-core-sample-questions.

At the school board meeting Monday, Blow asked if the State Education Department has been told about the limits of the tests, and Snyder said that it has.

“What was the response?” Blow asked.

“Nothing,” said Snyder. “It’s useless testing in terms of the information I get about my students and my teachers. I’m a good soldier,” Snyder said of administering the state exams, but she reiterated, “It’s useless data.”

“Where are all the professional organizations?” asked board member James C. Coffin, who retired after a career with the education department.

“They’ve got to raise hell. They’ve got to lead this stuff,” Coffin said. “It can’t be a disparate group. This is a terrible mess that we’re in. That we can’t get the tests back in our building…to use them to evaluate our teachers is insane. Evaluating people has got to be done by the people in the building.”

“They’re all down there [at the Capitol] fighting,” Fiero said of large organizations like the teachers’ unions. “There is a lot of noise. The budget hasn’t come out. The whole thing isn’t done yet.”

“Losing local control of public schools is extremely unnerving,” Snyder said.

One parent said that her fourth-grader hates school, and says that all they do is math, math, math.

“Are we teaching to the test?” Blow asked.

“Absolutely,” chorused parents and teachers.

Blow said that the board might schedule a forum for further discussion about the testing for two weeks ahead.

“I’ll talk to the board members and see if we want to,” he said.

Later, he told The Enterprise, “I’d rather have my facts before I go into a community forum. I want to make sure we are completely comfortable with facts before talking about them in a community forum.”

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